Fireworks
by idealskeptic
Summary: AH. When Renee gives her new college graduate daughter a trip to the North Carolina beach for a the 4th of July and tells her to live a little and have fun, what will Bella do when she meets a sexy jogger on the beach who happens to have a very cute puppy? Will she do as she was told and let loose with Emmett?


**I don't own this. Never have. Never will.**

**A/N: **This was meant to be a birthday present for super sweet _emmettsmate_ but I couldn't wait so I gave it to her for Christmas. Her only request? Emmett and Bella! So, I hope you like it as much as she said she did!

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**Fireworks**

Go to the beach, Bella. You'll have fun, Bella. You never see your cousins, Bella. You need to have fun, Bella. Get a tan, get drunk, have sex on the beach, Bella. Live a little, Bella. Go to the beach and have fun, Bella.

What mother says that to her newly minted college graduate daughter?

Mine does.

And I didn't want to do most of the things she wants me to do.

Because I'm a wallflower.

When someone spends the Fourth of July weekend on North Carolina's Outer Banks, she doesn't usually spend the early morning hours reading _Wuthering Heights _on the stretch of beach that is part of her cousins' palatial beach house.

I am not someone.

Therefore, I read _Wuthering Heights _on the beaches of Kill Devil Hills while my cousins sleep off a long night of partying.

What my mother doesn't understand is that I have nothing in common with said cousins, hence my not needing to sleep off a night of partying.

Unlike Jasper and Rosalie's father, who inherited a Texas oil fortune and owns three vacation homes around the United States, my father is a small town cop in the Pacific Northwest. Unlike Jasper and Rosalie's parents, who paid for them to attend Columbia without having to get so much as a work-study job, my parents helped me fill out scholarship and loan applications to go to the University of Washington. I'll be paying those bills off for the next quarter century.

As for vacation homes, I have my choice of the bedroom in my mother's house in Phoenix or the bedroom in my father's house in a tiny, wet town called Forks.

That's probably how I ended up in Kill Devil Hills. They ganged up and guilted me into it.

Don't get me wrong, I like my cousins. Jasper is the sweetest Southern gentleman you could ask for and we text and email constantly. And Rosalie, well, she's my cousin and you always love family.

I'm so busy wallowing in self-pity that I don't see the dog until it knocks me on my back and sets about covering me in wet kisses and licks.

"Luna, no!" a deep voice yells out, and the black furry dog backs off. "I'm so sorry. She's just overly friendly. I swear she wouldn't hurt a fly."

Luna apparently takes my lack of panic as an invitation to lick me more, so I sit up and scratch behind her ear. "What kind of dog is she?" I ask, looking up at him and shielding my eyes from the late morning sun with my free hand – it's a good thing I don't have anything else to say because I'm totally distracted by his sculpted, slightly sweaty chest.

"Portuguese Water Dog, and still a puppy," he says, hopefully oblivious to my staring. "She's Luna, as you know. I'm Emmett, Emmett McCarty."

"Bella Swan," I tell him as I get to my feet. I'm slightly mortified to realize I'm wearing a holey white tank top and pink _Hello Kitty _pajama shorts while he looks like he's straight out of an _Abercrombie & Fitch _catalogue. I try to ignore that and focus on speaking coherently. Luna weaving around my legs, begging for attention definitely helps. "Are you from around here?"

He jerks his thumb over his shoulder and nods. "Born and raised, but back on the mainland, though. What about you? You don't look like anyone I've seen around here."

"Born in the Pacific Northwest, raised in Phoenix." I gesture to the beach house behind me. "I'm spending part of the summer with my cousins at their parents' beach house."

His deep green eyes go wide. "Rosalie and Jasper Hale are your cousins? You don't seem much like them. Well, not like her. Jasper's alright. I'm sorry. I just insulted you, didn't I?"

"Maybe them, not me," I laugh and shake my head, wondering how many snarls are in my long brown hair. "No, you didn't. That's pretty much how I feel about them. But yeah, they're my cousins. Were you at their party last night?"

"No, had to work. Being from the mainland means you're practically a peasant around here so I was busy selling smartphones and tablets to the rich shmucks that dropped theirs in the ocean on their vacation. I figured I might as well get the extra hours in so I can take all of the 4th weekend off." He cringes and offers me a dimpled grin. "Sorry, I ramble."

"We balance each other out," I say, meaning to console him, "because people say I don't talk enough."

"Fair enough," he agrees. "Anyway, you know I'm Emmett and this is Luna, but I'm twenty-two and my parents are a secretary and a teacher, respectively. Oh, and Jasper knows me well. Given all that, is it too forward of me to ask if you've had breakfast yet?"

My stomach growls at the mere thought of food. I haven't eaten because Rosalie and Jasper's party mess is still all over the kitchen and I wasn't brave enough to venture in. So, remembering what my mother wants me to do on my Fourth of July vacation, I nod. "Nope, not too forward at all. I need to, um, get dressed, though. That okay?"

"Sure," he agrees easily. "Meet you back here in twenty minutes, half an hour?"

"Twenty minutes," I say, stupidly eager to have breakfast with him. "I'm low maintenance."

"Good to know," he says, winking as he grabs Luna's collar and attaches a leash. "See you in a few, Bella Swan."

I wait until he's got his back turned and then race, in all my clumsied glory, across the sand, up the wooden deck, and through the sliding glass doors that I'd mercifully left open – otherwise it'd be a trip to the emergency room for me for injuries caused by running into a sliding glass door. And that's happened before.

I'm in such a hurry that I start stripping out of my pajamas right there in the kitchen.

"Holy crap! Naked cousin in the kitchen!" Jasper yelps from where he's standing behind the marble topped island. "The party's over, Bella, we put our clothes _on_ the morning _after_. We don't take them off."

I turn around just long enough to make sure he's got his eyes covered before I dig through the basket full of laundry just inside the laundry room. It's dirty, for the most part, but I haven't done any other washing so it'll have to do. It shouldn't be too bad; I don't sweat a lot and I probably have just enough time for a super-fast shower. "I'm going out to breakfast," I call to Jasper as I hurry into the bathroom that's just off the kitchen, clean-ish clothes in hand. I'm so thankful they're rich enough to have a shower in every bathroom, and a bathroom in the kitchen. "You know Emmett McCarty, right?"

Since I'm already in the shower, behind the frosted glass door, Jasper comes into the bathroom and leans against the door. "Yeah, I do. You're going to breakfast with him?"

"Yep, his dog licked me on the beach and then he asked me to breakfast. He doesn't seem to like Rosalie very much," I add before I think better of it.

Jasper tries to cover his snicker with a cough but fails badly. "That's because she likes him _too_ much. Don't worry, though, she's got Garrett now so she won't care that you're going out with him. He's a good guy, Bella. You can go out with him."

Cringing as Rosalie's freesia scented shampoo drips into my eye, I let out a loud sigh. "I wasn't asking your permission, Jazz. I was asking if I can trust him."

"Your dad's a cop, Bella, I'm not letting anything happen to you," he tells me, reminding me that oil fortune heirs are still afraid of the law, occasionally. "Yes, you can trust him. Take your cell phone and let me know if you're going to be gone all day or if you need me to come and pick you up."

"No hot dates today?" I ask slyly, wantonly borrowing Rosalie's razor to shave my legs.

"Rosalie's going out with Garrett so I'm staying home to clean, I suppose," he says with a sigh. "Oh, Alice is coming tonight. You said you wanted to see her again so you'll be back for the fireworks tonight, right?"

I towel myself dry and step out of the shower. "Yes, Jasper. I want to see the girl you've been in love with since you were eight but stupidly, incomprehensibly refuse to ask out. I'll be back for the fireworks." I kiss his cheek and reach around him for Rosalie's hairbrush – all my stuff is in the upstairs bathroom. "If it goes well today, can I invite Emmett for them?"

"He's already technically invited," he says as he hands me the tank top I rescued from the laundry, "but yeah, you can invite him from you. Be good, Bella."

"Always," I promise, darting around him and back outside.

Emmett's already there, with Luna by his side. "You're not late," he says before I can say that I am, "I'm just fast."

"I thought you lived on the mainland anyway," I protest, kneeling in the warm sand to give my new furry best friend a proper greeting. "Twenty minutes should have been like an hour too little for you."

"I'm a lifeguard on the island and we stay at the headquarters for two weeks at a time. All my stuff was there," he explains, flashing me his dimples again. "So glad they let me keep Luna there."

I stand and brush the sand off my knees. "So you sell computers _and_ you're a lifeguard, are you actually off today?"

He shows me a walkie-talkie and gives a half shrug. "Yes, I am. I'm on call, though. We never have to work the 4th of July weekend and Labor Day weekend so I'll work in September. Still want to go with me?"

I do and we set off for a café he knows about that allows dogs as long as you eat outdoors. Breakfast in the morning sunshine on the Atlantic coast sounds perfect to me. I'm glad that the island is pretty exclusive, though, and the crowds aren't too thick.

Emmett offers to order for me, telling me he knows the cook and what's best, so I let him go inside while I find a table on the corner of the stone patio and wait with Luna, who curls up under the table, and on my toes. Breakfast is fruit salad with Greek yogurt and it's delicious – even if it didn't take a lot of work on the part of the cook.

We talk while we eat. I talk more than I've probably ever talked during a meal, and Emmett talks too. I find out that he just graduated from college too and that, when lifeguard season is over, he's going to be a kindergarten teacher. I learn that he was aiming for a football scholarship but got hurt in a car accident just before his high school graduation.

I tell him that I want to teach English because I can't read enough books to make myself happy. I warn him, when he asks about going to Nags Head for the afternoon, that I'm very clumsy and I hope lifeguard training comes with first aid training.

He assures me that it does and we set off for what he promises will be a very memorable day.

Neither of us has a car, so we take Emmett's golf cart, because he has one for some reason, and we find our way to the arts festival first. It's a typical arts festival, and crawling with tourists, but it's fun. I buy some kitschy jewelry that I know Renee will love and have Emmett take pictures of me in front of different places so she'll know I actually left the house. I even get brave enough to have a total stranger take a picture of me and Emmett, and then I text it to her.

After lunch on the boardwalk, Emmett apparently forgets my promise of clumsiness leading to inevitable injury and suggests that we go miniature golfing. When I remind him about it, he only shakes his head. "I'll keep you away from the emergency room," he promises. "Remember, I've got first aid training."

I can't argue with that, and I don't want to, so I don't.

And we go to miniature golf on the beach. With Luna in tow.

I'm winning, and uninjured, when we get to the eighteenth hole. The goal is to get the ball through the up the lizard's tongue and into his mouth, where it will go down a chute and come out on top of his tail, hopefully dropping directly into the hole. I get too excited about the prospect of winning, at least that's what I will forever use as an excuse, and trip over the wooden border around the green AstroTurf.

I know I'm bleeding before Emmett reaches me.

"Are you okay?" he says, dropping to one knee beside me.

"I told you I was clumsy," I pout, examining the nasty scrape on my knee. "I'm fine. I don't have any _Band-Aids_, but I'm fine."

"I'm the professional, remember," he says, running his hands over my injury. "It needs to be cleaned up. The way I see it, we've got two options; we can go to my apartment here and get you taken care of or I can take you back to Jasper and Rosalie's. You pick."

"It doesn't even need x-rays," I mutter, certain that the injury to my pride would hurt less if the injury hurt more. But, not wanting the day to be ended by a scraped knee and being returned to my family like a little child, I announce my desire to go to his apartment. My mother would be so proud of me. "But let me hit the ball one more time?" I ask him. "I bet I can get it in the hole."

Emmett helps me to my feet and hands me my club. He's already got his ball in, so it's just me left.

I sink the bright red ball with just one more nudge, even if I am slightly distracted by the warm, sticky, wet blood sliding down my shin. "Did I win?" I chirp excitedly as he marks the scorecard.

"Yep, by three strokes," he grins in reply. "Nice job. Let's return the clubs and get you taken care of."

I don't object to a piggyback ride from Emmett. Wrapping my arms around his muscular, warm shoulders and chest, and my legs around his waist, is not something I will _ever_ regret doing.

He turns in the clubs and tells me that it'll be quicker to just walk to his apartment, and come back for his golf cart later, and assures me that I'm not too heavy to carry there. Somehow I don't think I'm the heaviest thing he's lifted and carried for extended periods. He kind of seems like one of those guys who flips hundred pound ties over and over and over again through sand for, well, fun.

His apartment is on the first floor and, for a twenty-two year old single guy, it's surprisingly clean and well-decorated. Something tells me that he rented the apartment furnished but I kept that thought to myself. It's not as though I'm any good at matching throw pillows with the pattern on my curtains.

Emmett sits me on the kitchen counter and rummages around in a cupboard, coming back with a first aid kit. I sit still and watch him as he methodically goes about washing all the blood off my leg with soap and water, making sure there's nothing stuck in the scrape, drying it, wiping it with antiseptic cream, and applying two _Band-Aids_ featuring none other than _SpongeBob SquarePants_ himself.

Feeling weirdly bold for being completely sober and it being still very much daytime, I make my mind be quiet and let my heart and body do the talking. "You forgot something," I tell him.

He looks up from putting everything away. "I did?" he asks, clearly confused.

I bite my bottom lip and nod. I've never done anything like this before, but I can't think of a good reason not to do it. "Yeah, you forgot to give it a kiss to make it feel better."

Emmett's eyes go wide, but his dimples come out as he smiles. The first aid kit forgotten for the moment, he bends and places a kiss on my knee.

I shiver at the feel of his warm hand on the back of my leg.

He doesn't let go of my leg, spreading my legs instead and standing between them.

I lean forward and kiss him. "Thank you." My hands are gripping the edge of the counter, but that's only because I don't know quite what else to do with them. I'm inexperienced at this. Not new, just inexperienced. I don't honestly know if I'm being seductive and appealing or awkward and off-putting but I decide to just go with it.

Emmett seems to agree too, kissing me with a fervency that I like very much.

When my arms have instinctively circled around his neck and I'm leaning in to his chest, I sigh nervously. "Would it be weird if I said we should have sex?" I ask him when my mouth isn't otherwise occupied. "Would you think I'm a slut who sleeps with every boy whose dog licks her on the beach?"

"Do you?" he asks huskily.

I shake my head and shiver as he nips at my ear.

"Should we?" he asks.

I nod, shivering again.

"Okay, then," he agrees, maneuvering my legs so that they're wrapped around his waist.

I feel so very bad and yet so very good.

Emmett carries me through the apartment and into his bedroom just as gently as he looked after my leg.

We never stop kissing.

It's a good thing I was walking on my own or I'd surely have walked into a wall.

He sets me on my back in the center of the bed, and supports himself on his arms while he hovers over me, kissing me more gently than I've ever been kissed.

That makes it all the better.

I'm trying to shimmy out of my clothes, but my position isn't the best. Emmett catches on quickly, though, and sits me up just long enough to pull the tank-top over my head before laying me back down and sliding my shorts down over my hips before flinging them to the side of the bedroom.

"Now you," I tell him after we kiss for another minute.

He's undressed even faster and it only makes sense to run my hands over the chiseled planes of his chest and stomach. I can feel him between my legs and I twist my hips to get the friction that makes me give little gasps of happiness.

Emmett leans to the side, and I'm frustrated by the lack of contact between us, but he's back in an instant with a gold foil wrapper in his hand. Knowing what it is, I snatch it from him and, as he leans back and exposes himself to me fully, I roll the condom onto him.

With that done, he hovers over me again. "Last chance to stop," he reminds me.

"Last chance for you too," I remind him, very much not wanting to stop.

He attacks me with his lips then, and I writhe against him happily.

Sex with Emmett is so much better than the other half dozen times I've had sex. There's no forcedness to it, no feeling of having to get to one point and then be done. Sex with Emmett is slow and urgent at the same time. There's no screaming of names or begging to deities of one variety or another. We're almost completely silent as we move in perfect rhythm with each other.

When we do reach that point that everyone wants to reach, after an intense time spent worshipping each other, we came together in every way possible.

And I don't let go of Emmett until my breathing returns to normal.

"I think I need to get a job wherever you're going to get a job," Emmett says softly as he rolls onto his back and pulls me into his arms.

"Just because we had good sex?" I ask, smirking as I trace his six-pack again.

"Good? Ha, that was great sex," he points out. "But no, not just because of that. Okay, sort of because of that. See, according my logic, sex that awesome is a sure sign that two people should at least go on a few dates, if not spend a half century together in wedded bliss."

"Seems logical enough to me," I agree amiably. "I don't know about moving in together just yet, but I am going to be here for another week, and I could probably draw it out to two so a few dates are definite possibilities."

"Sweet," he breathes against the top of my head, kissing me gently. "I'm so glad Luna attacked you with slobber and spit this morning."

"That was just this morning?" I gasp in mock shock. "What time is it now?"

"Four-thirty. Why?" he asks in a teasing voice. "Do you have another hot date to get to?"

I sit up and stick my tongue out at him. "Very funny, but no. Are you coming to watch the fireworks at Jasper and Rosalie's?"

Emmett raises an eyebrow at me. "Are you inviting me to watch the fireworks at Jasper and Rosalie's?"

"Yes," I tell him, suddenly shy and trying not to show it. "Even if I wasn't, Jasper told me he'd already invited you."

He follows me and sits up, rubbing his thumb along my chin. "Yes, I'm coming, Bella. Don't be such a worrier. I was thinking about not going, even if Rosalie does have a new boyfriend, but I definitely want to go if it means spending more time with you. Can I bring Luna?"

I chew the inside of my lip and consider that. I honestly don't know if there's a no pets rule at the beach house, and frankly I don't care. "You better bring, Luna. She's just a puppy, she'll need you to comfort her when the noise starts. Besides, you can always leave if it's too much for her."

Swinging his legs off the bed, and affording me the perfect view of him from behind as he bends to grab his shorts, Emmett laughs deeply. "I may have only known you a few hours, Bella Swan, but I know that you're actually hoping that it's too much for Luna so I have to leave and you can come with me."

I throw a pillow at him and, miraculously, catch my clothes when he tosses them to me. "So what if I am? Are you opposed to that idea?"

"Absolutely not," he says firmly. "In fact, I hope Luna freaks a little. Anyway, though, I guess I have Jasper's seal of approval to date you?"

"You do," I assure him as I get dressed. "It sounded like he felt bad about Rosalie hounding you."

"He should," Emmett grumbles. "He set me up on a date with her. I was blissfully ignorant of all things Rosalie Hale before that. Don't get me wrong, she means well. She just means well… intensely."

Having been forced to play with her at holidays, I knew exactly what he was talking about. He grins when I tell him so.

Dressed again and washing away as many traces of how we spent the afternoon as possible, we grab Luna and leave the apartment. It's a short walk back to the golf cart, but Emmett gives me a piggy back ride anyway. As I look around, I see the _Band-Aids_ on my knee and know that I will never look at _SpongeBob SquarePants _quite the same again. That thought makes me giggle happily.

"A cartoon _Band-Aid _and sex hair?" Rosalie greets me bluntly as Emmett takes Luna to pee before she goes inside. "Jasper said you went out with Emmett McCarty today, did you already have sex with him?"

"Didn't you already answer that question for yourself?" I counter.

She nods, a smirk slowly spreading across her face. "But how did you hurt your knee having sex? Only you could do that, Bella Swan."

"I didn't," I pout, surprised that I'm not blushing – maybe it's the liberation of a just-met-you-think-I-might-love-you sex. "I hurt my knee playing miniature golf. Emmett had a first-aid kit at his apartment and, well, one thing led to another."

Rosalie throws her arms around me and squeals loudly. "I am so proud of you, my little wallflower cousin! Who knew a week with me on the beach would get you to do that."

"Calm down, sister," Jasper says, pulling her off me. "She met Emmett all on her own and you haven't been around much of the weekend to corrupt her. Any corruption is all of her own making," he adds with a wink in my direction.

I stick my tongue out at him. "Where's Alice? I want to see her."

Luna having relieved herself and Emmett having found me, we end up spending the next few hours hanging out mostly with Jasper and Alice. Rosalie is definitely the more social of my cousins and she flits through the party like the ever-ready hostess she is.

Jasper winks at me when he notices Emmett's arm wrapped around my waist and I preen happily at the attention from both of them.

Luna, in the end, is not at all bothered by the fireworks. I watch them lying on the sand with Luna on one side and Emmett on the other. When the grand finale booms out in the dark sky, she licks my left cheek and Emmett kisses my right.

"I think you stole my dog," he murmurs in my ear.

"She's got good taste," I whisper back, "just like you."

We stay a little longer but, as the party-goers get crazier, Luna gets more skittish. I tell Jasper I'm spending the night in peace and quiet at Emmett's and he tells me he's doing the same at Alice's. Then we both tell Rosalie not to get arrested because we are not bailing her out.

Back at Emmett's apartment, he leaves me alone to take Luna for a quick, pre-bed walk around the block. I'd have gone, but I twisted my ankle in the sand and he says I need to elevate and ice it.

While I'm alone, I pull out my phone and send my mom and email.

_Hi Mom,_

_Remember what you said? Well, here's what I've been up to…_

_I went to the beach._

_I had fun._

_I saw my cousins._

_I got a sunburn, but I haven't been drunk._

_A guy's dog licked me on the beach this morning so I went to breakfast with him. And then to miniature golf – I scraped my knee and he took care of me. And then I had sex with him. _

_I didn't have sex on the beach (we did lay on the beach to watch the fireworks together, though) but you read that right. I had sex. With a man I met this morning._

_I think I'm in love._

_I'm still a wallflower, though. But I lived a little._

_And it was awesome!_

_xoxoxo_

_Bella_

**The End**


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